AI and Energy

The Rocky Mountain AI Interest Group (RMAIIG) will host an in-person meeting in Boulder on Monday, May 11th, at 6:30 pm MT on “AI & Energy.”

Energy has always been foundational and often invisible, powering everything from industry to the digital systems that shape daily life. Each technological shift has reshaped how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed.

Now AI has entered the picture. It is rapidly becoming a major driver of electricity demand, raising new questions about infrastructure, efficiency, and sustainability.

As data centers scale, we are beginning to ask: can we reduce energy per token? What is the impact on local grids? How are utilities adapting? And what does this mean for the environment? Can AI and AI datacenters even make our grid more resilient, and offset the cost of upgrades?

AI & Energy brings together practitioners to explore the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of artificial intelligence and energy systems.

Kudos to Ken Fricklas for organizing and running the meeting!

Thanks to our pizza sponsor, Carstens Allen Gourley, which is an award-winning technology and intellectual property law firm with offices in Dallas & Denver. We help companies with patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, and IP strategies. We offer a full spectrum of legal counsel, in both the traditional IP landscape and the evolving realm of AI and emerging technologies, ensuring businesses are protected and positioned for success. **Learn more: https://www.caglaw.com/**

AI & Energy
CU Boulder East Campus: In-person
Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building (Room 120)
3775 Discovery Dr., Boulder, CO 80303
Monday, May 11th
6:30 - 8:30 PM
5:45 PM Free pizza (thanks to pizza sponsor Carstens Allen Gourley!)
**Parking: https://www.rmaiig.org/parking**

Our first speaker is Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office.

Will Toor has served as executive director of the Colorado Energy Office since 2019, helping to develop and implement the Polis Administration's strategy on clean energy and climate change. Prior to his role he served as Boulder Mayor, Boulder County Commissioner, Chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, and as transportation program director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. Will has a BS in physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago

Next we have Michael Zarrilli, Executive Officer of Business Operations at Denvr Dataworks, where he leads operational strategy, execution, and performance across the company’s core business functions. Denvr Dataworks is a specialized AI infrastructure and cloud platform provider, delivering high-performance GPU compute, data center infrastructure, and end-to-end services designed to support AI development, training, and deployment at scale.

Michael brings a background in data center growth, operations, and M&A, with leadership roles at Silent-Aire and Johnson Controls, and earlier experience in strategy and consulting at Booz & Company and Deloitte.

Finally, our third speaker is Scott Chamberlin, Co-founder and CTO of NeuralWatt, where he is focused on developing solutions to reduce the power consumption and cost of AI workloads by applying advanced machine learning to energy efficiency challenges. NeuralWatt builds technology to address the growing energy demands of AI, optimizing how and when compute is used to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact.

Scott previously led sustainability and green software initiatives at Intel and Microsoft, where he pioneered carbon-aware computing systems now integrated into Windows, and earlier co-founded Ullr Labs and the Open Avalanche Project, applying AI and data science to real-world problems.

Special thanks to Bobby Hodgkinson for arranging the meeting space!